Higgs Boson Production at the LHC M. Y. Hussein* *Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Bahrain P.O. Box 32038, Kingdom of Bahrain One of the major goals of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is to probe the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism and the generation of the masses of the elementary particles. We review the physics of the Higgs sector in the Standard Model. The main production channels of the Higgs production at the LHC are reviewed. The prospects for the discovering the Higgs particles at the LHC and the study of their fundamental properties are summarized. PACS numbers. 14.80. Bn, 11.80.La, 12.15.-y, 13.85.-t 1. Introduction The Higgs mechanism is the cornerstone in the energy phenomenology because it couples with particles electroweak sector of the Standard Model [SM]. The according to their masses, and so couples very weakly to fundamental particles, leptons, quarks and gauge the lepton and quark constituents of ordinary matter. particles, acquire the masses through the interaction with The Higgs bosons are produced through a variety of a scalar field [1,2]. To accommodate the well– mechanism at the LHC. Each of them makes use of the established electromagnetic and weak phenomena, this preference of the SM Higgs which couples to the heavy mechanism requires the existence of at least one scalar particles, either massive vector boson or massive quark. field. After absorbing three Goldstone bosons, one The LHC is expected to find the Higgs boson for all degree of freedom is left over which corresponds to a masses less than around 800 GeV. The production cross scalar particle “Higgs boson”. The properties of the sections are large and the theoretical predictions are well Higgs boson, decay widths and the production understood, with all important channels known to at least mechanisms, can be predicted if the mass of the particle to next-to-leading order accuracy. is fixed. Figure 1 shows the production cross section of the Higgs Although the Higgs boson is an essential ingredient in boson as a function of Higgs mass at the LHC. the Standard Model, but it has not yet been observed. After the end of LEP program, the Higgs search will be carried out at hadron colliders. If nature had chosen the most elegant and symmetric mathematical construct for the SM, all fundamental particles would have zero mass. Experiments show that this is not the case: all particles have a small mass. The Standard Model has no mechanism that would account for any of these masses, unless we supplement it by adding additional fields, of a type known as scalar fields. One of the greatest achievements of twentieth century theoretical physics was the discovery of how to incorporate particle masses into the Standard Model theory without spoiling the symmetry and mathematical consistency. The most straightforward way to do that is through what is known as “Higgs mechanism” [1, 2] The discovery of the Higgs boson would solve the mystery of how particles get their masses. The Figure 1: The production cross section and number of events for 105 pb-1 of the spontaneous breakdown of the weak-electromagnetic Higgs boson as a function of the Higgs mass at the LHC. gauge group can be accomplished in only one known way “Higgs fields”. The Higgs is elusive and plays a negligible role in low The gluon-gluon fusion through a heavy quark loop is the dominant production mechanism and the largest mechanism at hadron colliders, but again the largest Both CMS and ATLAS at the LHC [8] conducted decay for light Higgs boson into bottom quarks, has an extensive fully simulated Monte Carlo studies to overwhelming QCD background. At the Tevatron Run determine the experimental viability of all these II, it leads to about 65% of the total cross section in the channels. range 100–200 GeV. At the LHC gg fusion dominates over the other production channels for a light Higgs [3]. The vector boson fusion process is the second most dominant production mode at the LHC. It typically takes to 10% of the total Higgs cross section for low masses and up to 50% for a very Higgs boson. The vector boson fusion channel qq 푞푞 → 푞푞푉푉→푞푞퐻, which is not important at the Tevatron, is useful for the Higgs discovery over a large range of Higgs mass at the LHC [4]. By tagging the forward jets associated with the Higgs production, the background can be significantly reduced. The QCD corrections have been computed within the structure function approach and they increase the cross section of about 10% both at the Tevatron and at the LHC. Figure 2. Branching ratios for standard model Higgs decays The most promising channel for the Higgs discovery is the associate production of Higgs with vector boson A more comprehensive and complete account can be 푞푞 →V*→푉퐻 for mass of Higgs < 135 GeV, where the found elsewhere [8]. bb decay is dominant [5]. This is due to the possibility to The purpose of this work is to calculate the expected trigger on the leptonic decay of the vector boson. The cross section for Higgs boson at LHC energy, for both QCD corrections are the same as for Drell–Yan and single and double parton scattering mechanism. increase the cross section of 30% at the Tevatron Run II This paper is organized as follows. In the following and of 25–40% at the LHC. section we discuss the double parton scattering The associated production of a Higgs with a pair of t mechanism for Higgs boson production. In sction 3 we quarks at the LHC, 푞푞 , 푔푔 → 퐻푡푡 will play a very calculate all possible production for Higgs boson at LHC important role in the low Higgs boson mass range, both energy. Our summery and discussions on the Higgs for the discovery and for precision measurements of the boson production are presented in Section 4. Higgs boson couplings. This process will provide a direct measurement of the top quark Yukawa coupling 2. Double Parton Scattering Mechanism [6]. This production with 퐻 → 푏푏 , could be observed at the LHC with sufficient luminosity. Many features of high energy inelastic hadron collisions The associated production of a Higgs with a pair of b depend directly on the parton structure of hadrons. The quarks at the LHC, has small cross section which is due inelastic scattering of nucleons need not to occur only to small size of Yukawa coupling. In some extensions of through a single parton-parton interaction and the the SM, such as the MSSM, the Yukawa coupling of the contribution from double parton collision (DP) collisions b-quark can become strongly enhanced, the associate can be significant. A schematic view of a double parton production of a Higgs with a pair of b quarks can scattering events in a p푝 interaction is shown in Fig. 3 dominate over the other production channels and this production can be a significant source of Higgs boson. The final states most suitable for discovery at the LHC vary depending on the branching ratios, shown in figure 2, which are a function of the Higgs mass, and the relevant backgrounds [7]. For mass of Higgs less than 2MW the dominant decay mode is through bb. However, due to enormous QCD background, this channel is only considered in the ttH final state where handles exist for the rejection of this background. If the Higgs mass is large enough to make the 푊푊 and 푍푍 modes kinematic Figure 3. Diagram of a double parton scattering event. ally accessible, the H→WW final states over a very large mass range, as is the 퐻 → 푍푍 → 푙푙푙푙 four leptons, the The rate of events with multiple parton scattering later is commonly to us the „golden mode‟ as with four depends on how the partons are special distributed leptons in the final state is easy to trigger and allows for within the nucleon. So at high energies and due to large full reconstruction of the Higgs mass. flux in particular at the LHC, another type of scattering phenomenon is expected to contribute the cross section Here 휎푎 represents the single scattering cross section. If besides to single scattering: proton-proton collisions with the two interactions are indistinguishable, double multiple parton interactions [9]. Thus for Higgs boson counting is avoided by replacing production there would be two computing mechanisms: 휎2푆푆 휎퐷푆 = (3) single parton scattering and double (multiple) parton 휎푒푓푓 scattering featuring two Drell-Yan processes happening Here 휎2푆푆 represents the single scattering cross section simultaneously [10,11, 12]. 휎푆푆 = ∑ ∫ 푑푥푎 푑푥푏 푓푖 푥푎 푓푖 푥푏 휎 푖푗 → 푎 (4) The purpose of the present work is to calculate the expected cross sections for Higgs boson production at With 푓푖 푥푎 the standard parton distribution and the LHC, from both single and double parton scattering 휎 푖푗 → 푎 represents the sub-process cross section. The 2 mechanisms. parameter 휎푒 푓 푓 = 1/ ∫ 푑 푏퐹 푏 , is the effective cross Multiple parton interaction processes, where different section and it enters as a simple proportionality factor in pairs of partons have hard scattering in the same the integrated inclusive cross section for a double parton hadronic at high energies because of the growing flux of scattering 휎퐷푆 . The value of 휎푒푓푓 represents therefore the partons. whole output of the measure of the double parton The possibility of hadronic interactions with double scattering process, which on the other hand has shown to parton scattering collisions was foreseen on rather be in agreement with the available experimental general ground long ago [5].